About Me

Greetings!

Welcome to theFIREstarter! If you are interested in themes such as Financial Independence, Retiring Early, Downshifting, or simply just working less and living more then please stick around, I think we’ll get on just fine 🙂

If all of that sounds right up your alley then you can follow along by:

If you'd rather have a poke around first then by all means do so! You can always subscribe later by using the link at the top right of the menu above.
If you want to get the full story you can start from the very first post here or for a more casual read, just see what catches your eye on the list of all posts page.

My thoughts and plans have slightly changed in the few years since I set up the blog, you can learn a little bit more about me and the main points on what those plans were and how they've changed here, here, here, here and finally here.

If you'd like to keep a track of new developments, money saving tips, money making tips, my adventures in attempting self sufficiency and simple living, free financial hacks and spreadsheets, and my general musings on Financial Independence, Personal Finance, investing, and the occasional humorous rant, then please consider following along. Those links again:

I’m a 32 years young web developer currently working for a major corporate FTSE 100 company in the UK.

How am different from the majority of people I have encountered so far in my life?

I am planning a route to early retirement in 5 years or less

I am slowly finding myself further opting out of consumerism and to a certain extent popular culture and ways of thinking in general. I can only see this becoming more and more pronounced as time goes on but we’ll see ;o)

I love the environmental message that generally goes hand in hand with being frugal by reducing consumption – this greatly helps facilitate a high savings rate and early retirement.

I would just like, at this point, to emphasize that I am not, in any way shape or form, some sort of Saint, or in any way special, and genuinely am not trying to paint myself in that way.

It would be very silly (and misleading) of me in making myself out to be some sort of all noble, holier than thou character: saving every single penny, eating only the healthiest of foods and with a carbon footprint of negative proportions. And I really hope you do not think that I think I am from any of my posts. I just want to share some of the best wisdom I’ve come across in my life so far, wisdom that I think is worth spreading, and advice that I happily admit I need to work at following.

So for full disclosure then, here is a completely non-exhaustive list of my vices, both past and present. As you can see I have a long way to go before I can call myself a badass:

I gambled fairly heavily from the age of 18 to 31. I still have the occasional lapse on this front…!

I like golf, and am even a member of a golf club although am no longer a member of a golf club. However this is something I have no intention of giving up, even into early retirement. This is my one “vice” I have decided to allow myself.

Like most people, I enjoy a drink. Health wise and wallet wise this is obviously not good for you, so like most people this is something I do really need to cut down on!

I have a 50” flat screen television, plus many other of the latest gadgets. Most of it bought new. What can I say, I got caught up in the “wahey let’s buy lots of stuff” phase that most of my 20 something mates were doing at that age.

My house is full of clutter, books, DVDs and other crap. De-cluttering is something I really want to work on.

I’m about to spend/have just spent over 10 grand on getting wed and a 3 week honeymoon. What the woman wants etc…! I’m obviously not pretending I won’t / haven’t enjoyed all of that though, it’s a once in lifetime experience of course!

So there you have it, I’m a pretty regular Joe on most accounts, with as many “faults” – or let’s say areas I can improve on – as the next person. Hopefully if there are any doubts on whether you – if you want to call yourself an average person – can try to follow the same path as I am trying to follow, these have now been disbanded.

If you want to find out anything else about me let me know in the comments below!

Keep on FIREing my friends!

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Hey hey hey Hayley!
Thanks for your kind words! The wedding was fantastic and the Honeymoon is next Thursday, so I have to work out how to post some articles why I am away, that could be fun 🙂

You have already well and truly corrected your path having read a bit of your blog and that’s the main thing, once your debt is paid down I am sure you will continue and start amassing some retirement savings just as quickly. Cheers for stopping by.

Do you live in an expensive area in the UK? Retirement in 5 years is a mighty ambitious goal. Good luck with that…I will definitely be following your journey. I’ve been very interested in early retirement as well but I don’t earn a 6 figure income at the moment, have significant amount of student loans and I live in a very expensive area: NYC. I did however start saving at a young age and have always been frugal.

I live just outside London, so a higher cost of living compared to the rest of the UK, but not the highest.

I think the best answer I can give you is actually summed up by your very own post here: http://www.livingrichcheaply.com/2013/10/30/is-nyc-really-that-expensive – it’s as expensive as you want to make it. We bought a two bedroom flat for about £130,000 for example, in London the minimum for the same would be around £300,000 but you can also buy one where we live for nearly £200,000 if you had more money and less sense than we do.

I would just like to clarify that my income is nowhere near 6 figures, nor is our total household income in fact (household maybe just scrapes it in terms of dollars).

This blog is for the small guys out there trying to chase the big early retirement dream 🙂

It is cheaper in the South of France than London and much easier to spend less (there is less of everything / shops close a lot)! It helps with the financial independence numbers greatly.

Housing in the UK very expensive and makes it more difficult (due to the interest payments) to be financially independent early. Especially if you go for too much house. But housing always goes up and is an investment…if the timing is right.

Compared this to the US where accommodation and taxes are generally lower (unless you live in the center of a city) it can take longer to reach FI goals in the UK unless you have a high income.

Fortunately London is great for income if you can get a good job. For us without jobs it is too expensive to live there and summer is usually hit or miss 😉

TFS,
I just wanted to say hi to a fellow Brit! I’ve been following a lot of blogs from people in other countries and it’s nice to follow someone more local.
I’ve enjoyed reading through your blog so far, and I’m interested to see how you get on with your goal of retirement within 5 years. I think I’ll be trying out a few of the recipes you’ll posted. I like the enthusiasm too!
Anyways, all the best with your (don’t say journey)……goals (phew!) and I’ll be sure to check in on your progress.
Cheers
Huw

Ha ha… I hate saying Journey as well but often just fall into using it, it’s so easy! Must try harder!

Thanks for stopping in and taking the time to comment. I checked out your blog and I like it… great to hear someone in similar situations, it’s easier to relate and so on. I’ll be checking on your progress also!

This blog is nice for a newbee to FIRE like me. I am looking for opportunities to learn. I did already find some here (like the savingsrate calculation).

One thing I have to credit you for is my recent increase of garden activity… With 2 kids I had always an excuse, but seeing someone posting on work done in the garden was the push I needed to take action myself.

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Disclaimer

I am not a professional anything, and you should treat all the words you read on this site as ones that exist for your infotainment only. Even the ones in this disclaimer. I will not be held responsible for any kind of outcome from you following the advice or hint of a suggestion made on this blog, and will not be liable for any emotional damage inflicted by the stinkingly bad puns contained within. Read at your own risk. Some of the links on this website may be affiliate links, if you support me via these links I will be forever in your debt, not in any monetary sense of course. Like I'd actually put that in the disclaimer! Hah!